BURST
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to India this week, completing what its envoy to Canada says has been the “first cycle” of efforts to reset relations.
Dinesh Patnaik, speaking last week before the trip was officially announced, says he believes the initial reset happened last spring when Carney invited India’s prime minister to attend the G7 leaders gathering Canada hosted in Kananaskis.
Since then, Canadian officials have been busy planning when Carney would himself would visit. His upcoming trip to meet Narendra Modi, which the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Monday, is the first phase of that reset, Patnaik said.
“This visit would actually set the stage for even higher level of relationship between both countries.”
Beginning on Thursday, Carney will travel to both Mumbai and New Delhi to discuss “a mbitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence,” according to his office.
He will also meet with business leaders, as Carney looks to shore up more investments as part of his mission to diversify Canada’s market and trade access in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Carney will also travel to Australia where he will address its Parliament, which his office says will be the first of its kind in almost two decades from a Canadian prime minister, and meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He will also travel to Tokyo and meet with Japan Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who previously travelled to India, confirmed in a post on X that she would be joining Carney.
Even in the face of more uncertainty from Trump, Patnaik said a closer Canada-India relationship was an “inevitable” one, given how much the two countries share.
He characterized what had happened over the past two years as a “blip,” noting how it did not stop the flow of business or the “people to people” relations both countries enjoy.
Relations with India plummeted after former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced to the House of Commons back in September 2023 that Canadian security agencies were pursuing “ credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist gunned down outside of a British Columbia temple that June.
India has denied any involvement. Four Indian nationals have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in his killing.
Relations took a further nose dive when, in October 2024, the RCMP went public with concerns based on different investigations that it had uncovered evidence of Indian government agents involvement i n violent crimes targeted at members of South Asian diaspora and of pro-Khalistan activists, which had been presented to Indian officials.
Canada and India then expelled each other’s diplomats. Restoring each other’s high commissioners was one of the agreements Carney reached when he met with Modi at the G7 back in June.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Carney had accepted Modi’s invitation to meet in India when they spoke on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit last November.
Patnaik said he sees Carney and Modi’s upcoming meeting as “setting the agenda for the next many, many years.”
He said he expects the trip will lead to “concrete agreements” to be struck between Canada and India, covering dozens of areas, including energy.
The timing of Carney’s trip also comes at the end of the 90-day period from when it provided notice of its intent to launch negotiations on a long sought after trade deal with India, with the goal of more than doubling trade to $70 billion by 2030.
Efforts to negotiate a comprehensive trade agreement were first launched in 2010, with talks ultimately stopping as tensions ramped up between the two countries.
Patnaik suggested the upcoming trip will result in the two prime ministers directing their negotiators to finalize the agreement at the earliest opportunity, which he suggested could be within a year.
“There’s intent on both sides to finalize things, and that intent makes me confident that we’ll be able to do it very fast.”
He also added that he believes Carney will enjoy a warm welcome when he arrives in India.
“He has a very good image in India today,” Patnaik said.
“He’s one of the few global leaders who have gotten up and spoken out on various issues which make India feel confident that he’s a prime minister on the go.”
Patnaik pointed specifically to Carney’s resume as having worked as both Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor before entering elected politics, and the speech he delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month where he urged countries to come together in the face of “hegemons.”
“He is coming with a very good reputation, as a reputation as a man who gets things done.”
National Post
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.